| Masters of Horror | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Format | Horror Thriller |
| Created by | Mick Garris |
| Starring | Various |
| Country of origin |  Canada |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 min. |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Showtime |
| Original run | October 28, 2005 – present |
| External links | |
| TV.com summary | |
Masters of Horror is an American television series created by director Mick Garris for the Showtime cable network. New episodes premiere every Friday at 10pm EST throughout the season. The show follows an anthology format, with each one-hour episode featuring a short film directed by a well-known horror film director.
Contents |
Episodes
Season 1
| Episode | Director | Title | Overview |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Don Coscarelli | Incident On and Off a Mountain Road | A young woman with a dark past matches wits with a deformed and sadistic serial killer. |
| 2 | Stuart Gordon | H.P. Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witch-House | A college student discovers a plot by sinister, otherworldly forces to sacrifice his neighbor's infant. |
| 3 | Tobe Hooper | Dance of the Dead | A girl living in a post-apocalyptic village encounters reanimated corpses who dance on stage at a sinister bar. |
| 4 | Dario Argento | Jenifer | A police officer saves the life of a hideously deformed young woman, only to find himself drawn into a web of murder and self-destruction. |
| 5 | Mick Garris | Chocolate | A recently divorced young man begins experiencing the world through the senses of a woman he's never met. |
| 6 | Joe Dante | Homecoming | Political satire in which the reanimated corpses of soldiers killed in Iraq return in an attempt to sway the presidential election. |
| 7 | John Landis | Deer Woman | An ancient creature from Native American mythology wreaks havoc in this horror-comedy. |
| 8 | John Carpenter | Cigarette Burns | A man searches for the last surviving print of a rare film that allegedly drove the only audience that ever viewed it into a fit of homicidal frenzy. |
| 9 | William Malone | Fair Haired Child | A young outcast is kidnapped by a strange couple and locked in a basement with their son, who has a dark secret. |
| 10 | Lucky McKee | Sick Girl | An insect enthusiast starts a relationship with another girl, but then also finds herself involved with a rather predatory and aggressive insect. |
| 11 | Larry Cohen | Pick Me Up | Two serial killers (one who kills hitchhikers, another who kills anyone who gives him a ride) clash over their latest victim. |
| 12 | John McNaughton | Haeckel's Tale | A man seeking shelter in a secluded cabin becomes involved in a grotesque orgy of the undead. |
| 13 | Takashi Miike | Imprint | An American tourist gets much more than he bargained for while searching for a Japanese prostitute he fell in love with. |
Episode 4, "Jenifer", was accidentally made available on-demand to a select audience at the same time as Episode 2, "H.P. Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witch-House". The episode was cut for graphic violence during its initial television broadcast, and the cut scenes can only be viewed in a featurette separate from the film on the R1 DVD release. Episode 13, "Imprint", originally scheduled to premiere on January 27, 2006, was shelved by Showtime due to concerns over its content. Mick Garris, creator and executive producer of the series, characterized the episode as "the most disturbing film I've ever seen." It is available now only on DVD. [1] The episode was released on DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment, along with the rest of the episodes in the series.[2] Imprint was shown in the UK on Bravo (7 April 2006).[3]
Season 2
| Episode | Director | Title | Overview |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tobe Hooper | The Damned Thing | The apocalyptic tale of a monstrous force that devastates Sheriff Kevin Reddle’s family and terrorizes their small Texas community. Inspired by Ambrose Bierce's classic short story, and written by Richard Christian Matheson; Sean Patrick Flanery, Marisa Coughlan and Ted Raimi star. |
| 2 | John Landis | Family | This screenplay by Brent Hanley, tells the story of a young couple (Meredith Monroe and Matt Keeslar) who move to a new city and soon find out that their neighbor (George Wendt) is not what he seems. |
| 3 | Ernest Dickerson | The V Word | This vampire film directed by Ernest Dickerson from a screenplay by Mick Garris, reveals the punishment visited upon two teenage boys who make the very poor decision to break into a mortuary. Branden Nadon, Arjay Smith and Michael Ironside star. |
| 4 | Brad Anderson | Sounds Like | Written and directed by Brad Anderson and based on a short story by Mike O’Driscoll. The story of Larry Pearce, an ordinary man blessed with extraordinary hearing that drives him to the brink of insanity, and forces him to take violent action to silence the horrific cacophony in his head. |
| 5 | John Carpenter | Pro-Life | Pro-Life tells the story of a young girl trapped inside a clinic, who discovers the only thing more dangerous than her pursuers is the demonic secret that she carries within her. |
| 6 | Dario Argento | Pelts | Fur trader Jake Feldman knows that you can't make a coat without breaking a few animals' necks. In his pursuit to make the perfect fur coat to win over a woman, Feldman steals supernatural raccoon pelts that violently turn against those that covet them. Based on a short story by F. Paul Wilson |
| 7 | Joe Dante | The Screwfly Solution | The Screwfly Solution tells the story of a nightmarish plague that spreads across the globe, transforming men into psychotic killers who attack every woman that crosses their paths. Based on the eponymous Nebula Award-winning short story by Raccoona Sheldon. |
| 8 | Mick Garris | Valerie on the Stairs | "Valerie on the Stairs", from a screenplay by Clive Barker, tells the tale of a novelist who discovers there are fates worse than literary anonymity. |
| 9 | Rob Schmidt | Right to Die | After walking away from an auto accident that leaves his wife in a coma and on life support, a man must decide to let his wife die. But the situation becomes more nightmarish when her vengeful spirit threatens to expose a dirty secret of his own. |
| 10 | Tom Holland | We All Scream for Ice Cream | An ice cream man is accidentally killed during a childhood prank gone wrong. Now, years later after the kids have grown up, he returns for revenge. |
| 11 | Stuart Gordon | The Black Cat | Edgar Allan Poe, suffering from writer's block and short on cash, tormented by a black cat that will either destroy his life or inspire him to write one of his most famous stories. |
| 12 | Peter Medak | The Washingtonians | A man finds his family in danger after he discovers a shocking secret about our nation's founding fathers. |
| 13 | Norio Tsuruta | Dream Cruise | Jack, an American lawyer working in Tokyo, has fallen in love with the wife of his most valued client, Eiji. Despite Jack's deep-rooted fear of the sea, he reluctantly accepts Eiji's invitation to join the couple for a day trip on the Tokyo Bay. Pleasure turns to terror as they discover the watery destiny in store for each of them. |
Season 3/Fear Itself
Season 3 has been announced but its debut date is currently unknown. Series creator Mick Garris has stated that Showtime opted not to show the third season and that film studio Lionsgate has begun funding the series.[1]
The Hollywood Reporter reported on Sept. 25th that Mick Garris and Lionsgate have signed a 13-episode deal to create Fear Itself for NBC, a horror/fantasy-anthology series to air next summer. Like Masters of Horror it will consist of 60 minute episodes (with commercials) directed by some of horror's better known directors.
Filming is to start early next year with airings to start late next summer.
Masters of Science Fiction
In 2006, broadcast network ABC and IDT announced that they were developing Masters of Science Fiction, a new anthology series from the creators of Masters of Horror. Six episodes have been produced, and they are scheduled to air Saturdays at 10PM starting August 4, 2007. The episodes feature adaptations of stories by John Kessel, Robert A. Heinlein, Jonathan Fast, and Walter Mosley. Jonathan Frakes has directed a story by Harlan Ellison. [2]
Masters of Italian Horror
Masters of Italian Horror is also in the works, though not related to the other two show's creators. The first four directors announced are Lamberto Bava, Umberto Lenzi, Sergio Martino and Nicola Rondolino.
DVD Release
Rather than the expected route of packaging all of the season's episodes in one set, Anchor Bay Entertainment originally released each episode individually, as well as in optional two-packs or three-packs. The DVDs promise over three hours of bonus content, such as audio commentaries, interviews and documentaries. The DVD release also included covers and interior collectors cards painted by the Award winning Horror and Fantasy artist Caniglia. With the release of Joe Dante's Homecoming the DVD cover art has changed from the director oriented look to a more mainstream DVD cover art. With the release of the Jenifer DVD artwork it appears that Anchor Bay has chosen to produce individual artwork specialized to each episode. The Dead by Dawn film festival, which Anchor Bay supports, revealed in their festival guide that the decision has been taken by Anchor Bay UK to stop releasing double packs editions and instead release a season one box-set. On August 28, 2007, the first season of Masters of Horror was released in a 14-disc box set. The set consists of all 13 episodes, each on an individual disc, plus a 14th bonus disc with all new, never-before-seen features. The first season of Masters of Horror is also scheduled for release in three volumes on Blu-ray Disc (volumes 1 and 2 on October 16, 2007; volume 3 on November 13, 2007).
Soundtrack
A two disc soundtrack was released for the series on Immortal Records. The album features primarily heavy metal and rock acts with a few acoustic pieces. see main article: Masters of Horror Soundtrack
Comic adaptations
IDW publishing is producing a series of comic book adaptations of several episodes of the series. The first four issues are two-parters adapting Incident On and Off a Mountain Road and Dreams in the Witch-House. The first two comic covers were painted by the award-winning artist Caniglia.
Awards
| Year | Award | Awards |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Saturn Award | Win - Best Television Series Release on DVD |
| 2007 | Saturn Award | Nominated - Best Presentation on Television |
| 2007 | Spike TV awards | Nominated - Best TV Series |
| 2006 | Saturn Award | Win - Best Television Presentation |
| 2006 | Emmy | Win - Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music to Ed Shearmur |
| 2006 | Emmy | Nominated - Outstanding Music Composition for a Series to Richard Band for the episode "Dreams In The Witch House". |
